Composed by Nancy Tam

Performed by Rob MacDonald, Mike Savona, Demetri Petsalakis, and Patrick Power, electric guitars. Premiered October 15, 2011, Toronto.

"Inspired by Pablo Neruda's sonnet, You, originally composed for harp,
voice and cymbal for solo performer, is meant to undergo constant unrest
of transformation in arrangement, yet keeping the same sentiment
through every reincarnation. This bittersweet expression of a forbidden
love affair is realized through the dichotomy of the singable melody and
the metallic noise. The two juxtaposing musical elements are supported
by a repeating accompaniment that threading them together in unity."
– Nancy Tam

You - Nancy Tam

Composed by Monica Pearce
Performed by Ensemble Paramirabo

Frequently, my works are inspired by some sort of (usually artistic) external stimuli—an interesting book, an evocative painting, a character, a philosophical idea or in the case of vocal works—a guiding text. Since the concert concept for 'connotations' was based on a the idea of a "threshold", I wanted to push myself to approach the piece from a more abstract place (in fact, the working title of connations was abstract no. 1). The idea of "connotation", an idea of feeling that a word invokes an addition to its literal meaning, fit well with my musical concept, as an extension of meaning from the strange, sometimes melodic, sometimes ominous tone of the work. And in writing for the Ensemble Paramirabo, I wanted to write a work that took advantage not only of the virtuosity of separate instruments, but also the virtuosity of the ensemble as a whole.

Connotations - Monica Pearce

Composed by Chris Thornborrow
Performed by the Toy Piano Composers Ensemble

'Walking', is inspired by the animated short by Ryan Larkin. He was a Canadian artist and animator who rose to fame when 'Walking' (1968), was nominated for an Academy Award. He only created one other short film called 'Street Music' (1972), before his career began to spin out of control. He spent the next four decades homeless, and addicted to alcohol and cocaine. In 2004 he managed to kick his addictions and started working as an animator once again, creating bumpers for MTV. He passed away in 2007.

The film 'Walking', is a playful and skillful study of people in motion. But what's fascinating to me is that we only get a quick glimpse of Larkin's characters as they shuffle, saunter, and dance across the screen. These brief encounters foreshadow Larkin's relationships and experiences with people as a homeless man. He would say years later in an interview for the film 'Alter Egos', "I decided it was more interesting to live on the street. At least I get to meet a hundred people a day... It's kind of interesting... meeting all these people for just two seconds."

Walking - Chris Thornborrow

Composed by Elisha Denburg
Performed by Array Ensemble

Liaison - Elisha Denburg

Here are samples of works by some members of the Toy Piano Composers Collective! It features works for piano, toy piano, chamber works, and orchestral music.

toypianocomposers

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